You Call that a Kiss?

I finished the book last Tuesday. I remember the day because we had planned to see the movie that day for “buy one ticket, get one free” night and I knew I had to read the book first. I actually had just less than a page to read when Terri parked at the theater.

The Hunger Games is set in Panem, a country that rose from the ashes of a post-apocalyptic North America. Panem is ruled by The Capitol and supported by twelve surrounding districts. Every year the districts are forced to give up some of their young people to compete in a fight to the death.

The book was flawed. Mostly by sentence fragments.^* In parts, though, it was brilliant – the way Katniss is allowed to show her feelings outwardly, and do so safely, is a very nice part of the love story that develops.

It’s a very readable book. Apart from the sentence fragments.* The details of the characters struggle against the elements was especially compelling to me, and something I knew they would not be able to portray adequately in the film.

Of course, like many other readers, I was also struck by the parallels to our culture. Sending children off to a meaningless war simply because it is our duty, the decadent wealth of the few versus the extreme poverty of the many, and the over emphasis of food and entertainment. I’ve read that some don’t even see these parallels – another telling sign that we may be more like the the people of Panem than we realize.

I’ve read many who complain that the very existence of the games is never appropriately questioned in the book. What kind of society would let something like this go on? It seems hard to imagine. I think the lack of discussion about it speaks volumes. Perhaps our society – one that is preoccupied with fast food and reality TV – might fall victim to such a system without notice or discussion.

Actually, one could argue that we endure far more than this. The games in the book are so obviously pointless, that every reader can’t help but notice how cruel it all is. What many readers may not see is that we send thousands of our young men and women (Some even call them children. I don’t, but that’s another story – most who enlist in the military are very young indeed.) off to wars without ample justification. Do we think this is any less cruel? Some of them, just as in the book, train for the opportunity to volunteer for service as an honor. That doesn’t make it any less cruel.

If you’d like a good read, you should pick up the book. It’s not great literature, but I thought it was a good story with enough social commentary to make one think about the world we live in.

If you plan to see the film, you should definitely read the book first.

Of course, like all good stories, this one is about a girl and the boys who love her.

^* I know those are sentence fragments. I was trying to be funny.